Time for another edition of how I justify my position at Booman Tribune when I’m running on empty. Or something like that. But enough about me. On to the good stuff! That is, what do I think about these stories?
US banking giant Citigroup has reported a net profit of $1.6bn (£1.1bn) for the first three months of 2009.
The figure was better than expected and marked a sharp turnaround from the same period last year when it suffered a loss of more than $5bn.
Steven D’s take: Don’t know what that means (other than big bonuses for senior executives), but at least “we the people” own 40% of Citi. So when do I get my dividend? Oh, right. Silly me. Maybe I could start a new business: I bailed out Citigroup and all I got was this lousy t-shirt. Then maybe I’d profit from the TARP, too.
Good thing Bernie Madoff and Alan Stanford don’t live in China.
A Chinese woman who turned her beauty business into a multi-million dollar property empire could be executed after being put on trial for financial fraud.
Wu Ying, 28, who comes from a family of poor farmers, has pleaded not guilty to charges that she ran a pyramid scheme.
She is accused of defrauding investors of $57m (£38m) by promising returns of up to 10% but failing to invest their money properly, state media reports.
Steven D’s take: I’m not a death penalty advocate, but it seems to me that if you are going to argue that the death penalty is a real deterrent, this might be the crime where it actually works as one. And be honest, haven’t you wished over the last few weeks you could have lynched a few of the greedy bastards who foisted this economic disaster upon us?
Guess why this story is important.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – General Growth Properties Inc, the second-largest U.S. mall owner, declared bankruptcy on Thursday in the biggest real estate failure in U.S. history.
Ending months of speculation, General Growth, along with 158 of its 200-plus U.S. malls, filed Chapter 11 while it tries to refinance its debts.
Steven D’s take: And the answer is that Tom Friedman is no longer married to a billionaire heiress. Not that his changed circumstances will make him any less clueless . . .
Writing in Policy Review, Mary Eberstadt of the Hoover Institution wonders if the “prevailing social consensus about pornography” will crumble in the long run much the way acceptance of tobacco eroded after the Surgeon General’s landmark 1964 “Report on Smoking and Health.”
Steven D’s take: Actually, as far as I know Obama hasn’t ever pledged to ban internet porn. But then again, he never said he was going to ban guns either and our freedom loving patriots on the right still think he will, much to the glee of gun manufacturers and distributors who have seen their sales rocket upward despite the bad economy. Maybe if the producers of porn start pushing the same panic button . . . Hey, you never know.
Now for some news from Turkey. Coup or no coup?
Eight Turks, including some top academics, have become the latest people charged in connection with an alleged plot to topple the government.
Professor Mehmet Haberal, the rector of Baskent University in Ankara, was among those detained.
Some 142 people have already been charged over the “Ergenekon” plot, allegedly meant to stoke unrest and provoke the army into launching a coup.
Critics say the ruling AK Party is simply targeting its secular opponents.
Mr Haberal was arrested earlier this week. He had in recent months organised meetings with opponents of the AKP, which has its roots in political Islam, reportedly with the intention of forming a new political movement.
Steven D’s take: Dick Cheney is kicking himself today for not thinking of this idea before the 2006 elections: The secularists are coming! The secularists are coming! I bet if only he’d arrested Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean three years ago, Sarah Palin would be warming his old seat right now. Well he had so much on his plate back then: Bombing Iran, keeping his old buddies at Halliburton and KBR happy, keeping Scooter out of jail. One can see why he might have missed such a golden opportunity. Besides who knew the Democrats could actually win an election? Karl Rove had the math, after all.
Here’s your WATB story of the day.
BEIJING (Reuters) – U.S. companies are concerned that they are not getting a fair chance at contracts linked to China’s 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) stimulus package, a leading U.S. business group said on Friday. […]
[M]yron Brilliant, senior vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said that China’s own stimulus package lacked clarity in terms of how foreign firms can bid for contracts on infrastructure projects.
“We are very concerned that the stimulus package may have a significant local bias,” Brilliant told reporters in Beijing.
Steven D’s take: Aren’t these the same folks who claim poor Americans have too great a sense of entitlement regarding government handouts like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid? I suppose when your own government turns on the money tap whenever you need it you just expect foreign governments to follow suit. “Don’t they know we are the Masters of the Universe! How dare they!” By the way, don’t you love that spokesman’s name: Myron Brilliant. You really can’t satirize these people. The Onion’s staff writers couldn’t have done a better job if they’d tried.
And now your daily dose from the Axis of Evil.
TOKYO (Reuters) – Iran could respond to U.S. efforts to engage with Tehran if Washington turns the new tenor of its words into reality, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted as saying by a Japanese newspaper. […]
Tehran said on Wednesday that it had prepared proposals to end the stalemate, but gave no details.
“We are studying the comments of the U.S. government precisely and with respect,” Mottaki was quoted as saying in an interview with the Yomiuri newspaper published in Japanese on Friday.
“If the Obama administration turns its expressions of change into reality, there can also be change on our side,” he added.
Steven D’s take: Talking? Diplomacy? It might actually work? No wonder those tea baggers were so upset. Johnny “POW” McCain would have already started WWIII by now (with real nukes, too). Curse that silver tongued black man with his phony Hawaiian birth certification! He’s ruined everything! First we can’t torture the evildoers anymore and now we can’t pre-emptively invade them either. Is nothing sacred? No wonder Texas wants to secede.
Well, that’s all for now folks. Have a good weekend. And stock up on your favorite internet porn now while you still can.
